Mike Ward

Did a complete clean up of the shop and added a desperately needed bench for my itty bitty vise and random junk. I don't have any before pics, but think of Gollums cave to get a mental image.

Like these?

When you say an ergonomical, physically unobtrusive guard, I'm picturing a simple elliptical shape with one end fatter than the other. And with it being flat and maybe some nice curvature underneath where the finger is. Is that what you're picturing too?

So I've gotten it heat treated finally and tempered it at 400F for two, 1 hour cycles. Seemed to come out fine, but I haven't done the brass test because I ran out of time again. I also have the guard all welded together with 3 layers of 1084 and double layers of 15n20 in between. This was then folded once with a piece of file in the middle for a final total of 11 layers. Then twisted and smashed down to this size of 2.5"x3/8"x3/4". Personally, I think it needs to be wider and maybe a little thinner. I'm going to have to do it anyway so that I can get rid of the remaining twist marks. What size do you guys think I should go to, thickness and width?

Quick question on tempering the knife. At what temperature should I be tempering this at in the oven? 375-400 range? It's 1084 and because it's longer, I want it to be tougher, so closer to 400 was what I was thinking. However, I am claying it for the first time, so I don't know if it's ok to be a little lower to keep a harder edge.

Yes sir! We both are, I'm probably going to put a cocobolo handle on it with a patternwelded guard.

Bringing back an oldish thread, but I have had the opportunity to do some more work on this knife. It's already for heat treat, gonna clay it for the differential hardness. It's size is 7.5" blade by 1.375" width and about 1/8" thickness with a distal taper. Let me know what you think please!

Well, here it is. I got pretty close to the drawing, probably going to do some small deviations from it. But I think I almost like it better this way. Let me know about any and all suggestions or tips you have please!

Yeah, my buddy does like it better and so do I. And I will add a bit more to the ricasso. I wanted to say that I greatly appreciate you guys for giving the helpful advice.

Joshua: Is this what you mean? Personally, I am not a hunter, so i talked to my buddy about your points and he still wants the bowie. But I did some other sketches for smaller knives and he really likes the bottom one and might buy that one also. I am planning to put a distal taper on it along with high grind and a false edge on the clip. Going to shoot for 3/8"-1/4" thickness at the ricasso. The ricasso I'm going to keep at at an inch wide because his hands are pretty close to mine and anything much more is getting uncomfortable. 1 1/8" might work but i think 1 1/4" is a little too much. Plus, the width of the blade is actually 1 5/16", I can't seem to be able read a ruler .

Thanks Alan, that's fine by me. Having the hamon doesn't really matter, I just wanted the differential heat treat, plus I was only planning to go up to 400 or 600 grit.

Hey, I'm making a piece for my friend for hunting. This is the preliminary sketch of what he said he wanted. Probably gonna be made out of 1084. One question I have is how thick should I make the spine? 3/16? 1/4? This will be the largest blade I will have done so far. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks, Mike

Thank you. It was supposed to be a 7ish in chefs knife but a bubble on both sides formed near the tip and had to be chopped off.

Second attempt at patternwelding was mostly successful. Tried random stuff making this, had two pieces of 3 layers of 1084 and 15n20. One I turned into 24 layers and the other 6 layers that I twisted then folded once. Put those together then folded to the twisted was on the inside. There were more inclusions than I would have liked but it seems to have turned out well. The handle is wenge with tiger striped maple and a bit of brass. Thanks

For my third attempt at forge welding and my first patternwelded knife I think this turned out very well. 48 layers of 1084/15n20 with cocobolo and curly maple and a bit of brass. All thoughts are welcome and criticisms too. Thanks, Mike

Hi, I just have a quick question and I couldn't really find anything this specific on other threads. Could I use light mineral oil as a quenchant for a patternwelded 1084/15n20 mix? Or should I go out and get some canola oil? I've used it on some other mystery steels and it's worked fine, but I'd rather know for sure on this one. Thanks, Mike

My fingernail is catching on it some.

That little delamination part I don't really care about cause it's just the mild that rolled over and I grinded it off the knife already. And are you talking about the black spot in the middle of the cutoff bit? I stuck it in some ferric chloride mixture to see the layers and just rubbed most for the black off until I saw the difference.

Well, I know it's been awhile for this thread, but college is on break and I got some stuff done. I tried to make a hot chisel out of a RR spike but that was kinda useless. I'm going to get another and weld a piece of high carbon something for the edge. I did another weld with a left over piece of file I made a previous knife out of and two pieces of A36 I got from TSC. This one went much, much better to say the least. The first couple of welds were at the very edge of sparking and I kept it hot all the way through the process until the end. I didn't see any cracks or delaminations anywhere at anytime. One thing I did notice was that I think I hit it too much on one side so I tried to compensate for it, but I don't really know. The other piece is some that I had to cut off because there was too much. Please let me know what you think!

I have a little box of them and I'm pretty sure that at least one is marked hc. I know that they are only about 1030. If I have to weld a piece on, then that's more practice for me!

I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of the input and suggestions you guys have given me. And on a completely unrelated note, do you think that I could make a hot cut chisel out a railroad spike? Just kinda curious because I need one.

Well, the hammer isn't that flat and has a somewhat curved face to it. Plus, I didn't really keep track of which side on hit was hit how many times which is probably a part why the outer welds are kinda curvy. The grind marks on each piece were perpendicular to the bars themselves to let out the flux when hit. I don't clean them with acetone or some kind of degreaser. The layers did slip when I was hitting it, but I think that was because I twisted the wire on the top side instead of on the corner where it's tighter.

I have no idea what kind it is but it's probably anthracite cause it doesn't stick. It does coke up though just fine. I got it from my dad's friend that used to work for Byholt, some kind of excavating company, that had a pile of coal lying around. He called us and said bring as many buckets as we could. We probably filled eight 5 gallon buckets, six storage boxes and other containers. That was like six years ago and there's still a little more than 3/4 left haha. Yeah, I know I'm going to lose some. The plan is in the next couple of years to build a gas forge and use that for welding and heat treat. That way I know how to use both and when I run out of coal I can go to gas with no problem

Yeah I don't think that my coal is good enough or something to make a beehive. I've tried to do it multiple times but it never stays together no matter what I do. The best I could do is stack fire brick around the pot and make a cave that way. I wish I could go out and just do it, but I still have college for the next 3 weeks and won't be home.

Does the rod have to be up to temp also? Or just touch it and if it sticks, good to go?